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• alerts on new threats to Nevada's environment
• opportunities to join other Nevadans on urgent actions
• updates on the decisions that impact our environment
• resources to help you create a cleaner, greener future

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Go Solar, Nevada

While more of us are trying to go solar, dirty energy companies keep putting up new roadblocks. We’re urging our leaders to go big on solar and leave dirty energy behind.

It’s time for Nevada to go big on solar power

More of us are going solar, meeting our energy needs in a way that’s clean, local and independent. Consider:

Solar power has tripled in the U.S. in the last two years, with another American family or business going solar every four minutes.

That’s in part because the price of solar has dropped more than 50 percent since 2011.

The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that “solar is growing so fast it is going to overtake everything...It could double every two years.”

Who's attacking solar?

Unfortunately, solar power’s rapid growth has alarmed some dirty energy companies. They keep putting up new roadblocks to solar -- so they can keep solar generating less than 3% of our power, even if it means more pollution and more global warming.

Here are just a few examples:

Charles and David Koch, owners of the oil conglomerate Koch Industries, and their allies have spent heavily to impose new taxes on homeowners who go solar – in effect, penalizing those who reduce their pollution and their carbon footprint.

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents electric utility companies, has teamed up with the American Legislative Exchange Council to dismantle state pro-solar laws in Kansas, North Carolina and Washington State, amid others.

Our report found all or nearly all of the states shared a set of smart policies in common, from strong clean energy standards to policies that let solar homeowners sell their extra power back to the utilities.

10 percent solar by 2030

We need more and better pro-solar policies, not fewer.

That’s why we’re urging Gov. Brian Sandoval to make commitments that will help put Nevada on the road to 100% clean energy, with 10 percent solar by 2030.

Achieving this state goal would produce immediate and long-lasting benefits for our country, including removing 280 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere by 2030—the equivalent of taking 59 million cars off the road.

Let's go big on solar

We think a combination of professional research and advocacy with community action can help Nevada go big on solar. Why? Our national federation has done it before.

Environment California spearheaded the campaign for that state’s Million Solar Roofs Initiative. In Massachusetts, we helped convince the state to set a goal of enough solar to power 50,000 homes – and then persuaded the state to raise the goal when it hit the original milestone ahead of schedule. We’ve also won pro-solar policies in Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota, Arizona, New Jersey and North Carolina.

But we have a long way to go to reach solar power’s true potential.

It’s time to go big on solar. If we take the right steps today, we can harness more power from the sun so we can finally leave dirty energy behind. The sky really is the limit.

Issue updates

According to the White House, President Trump’s State of the Union address will discuss the challenges of the coming year in an optimistic, forward-looking and bipartisan manner. We support that notion wholeheartedly, but we’re also mindful of his past rhetoric.

Federal regulators have rejected a proposal from Energy Secretary Rick Perry to subsidize unnecessary and aging coal and nuclear power plants at the expense of cleaner, more affordable energy options. The proposed rule was a not-so-thinly veiled effort to prop up dying fossil fuels and undermine modern, clean, renewable energy.

Today, Environment America delivered a message from 33,923 supporters in all 50 states urging Energy Secretary Rick Perry to back off on his proposals to get the federal government to intervene on behalf of old, dirty energy sources at the expense of cleaner, more affordable clean energy options.

Another quarter down, another solar record set. According to the latest figures from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), solar had its best second quarter in history. Below, I’ve selected three key stats that I think best help to explain their findings, and the state of solar overall.